


Progressive Endearments

by TheSightlessSniper



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Fluff, Injury, Kisses, M/M, Out of Character, Relationship(s), Slow Romance, Started as a drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2016-07-27
Packaged: 2018-07-27 03:08:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7601074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSightlessSniper/pseuds/TheSightlessSniper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'He had been baffled by the action, but had quickly shaken it off and dismissed the butler with a gentle wave of the hand.</p>
<p>The space where the demon had planted the kiss felt slightly warmer for the rest of the evening, and he found it wasn’t unpleasant.'</p>
<p>Out of nowhere, Sebastian kisses Ciel on the cheek.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Progressive Endearments

**Author's Note:**

> This started off life as a little drabble of a fic, and progressed into a oneshot later on. I've had it written for a while, but it wasn't quite ready, and then I removed a section of it and everything seemed to fall into place.
> 
> It's 90% fluff.

The first time Sebastian did it, Ciel chalked it up to Agni and Soma’s influence. The two indian men were incredibly touchy-feely with each other despite their relationship being entirely platonic, and it wouldn’t have surprised him if Sebastian was just taking some of their advice about being closer with his charge. He had been baffled by the action, but had quickly shaken it off and dismissed the butler with a gentle wave of the hand.

The space where the demon had planted the kiss felt slightly warmer for the rest of the evening, and he found it wasn’t unpleasant.

The second time, he had cursed himself as he had leaned into the action, tilting his head so the butler had easier access to his cheek from his standing position. At the movement, he had felt Sebastian smirk slightly against his skin, but he made no comment before going about the rest of his duties. Again, his cheek had felt aflame for the remainder of the day.

The third time it happened, Ciel had surprised himself and returned the favour; as Sebastian had pulled away from his face, his fingers quickly gripped at the butler’s chin, and he had leaned up and pressed his lips to one of the high bones of his cheek, watching through the barest crack in his eyes for the demon’s reaction and was very satisfied at the look of total bewilderment that crossed through those fiery red eyes. He’d pulled away, and immediately looked back to his work, scribbling his signature on the order forms for more Funtom product materials and dismissing the demon once more.

He would completely deny to anyone that dare ask that he had let his gaze wander to Sebastian’s slightly swaying behind as he waltzed across the room to the door.

The fourth time was different. Besides taking place when he was in bed one evening, the kiss moved closer to the corner of his mouth this time, just off his lips. Thick black lashes on unnaturally pale eyelids flicked closed momentarily, the usual mocking smirk vanished for just enough time for a calm smile to take its place. Ciel had to hold back his gulp of nerves as his butler’s mouth slightly brushed the side of his. Sebastian then stepped back and bade him good night. His stomach fluttered, his chest tightening, and he almost called him back for another.

The nightmares didn’t come that night.

The fifth time, he had stopped Sebastian, and instead initiated the contact himself. He shook as he stood from his seat behind his desk, hand jittering as it gestured for the demon, looking almost hurt of all things, to tilt his head down. Again, that permanent mocking expression softened, and Ciel stood up on his toes and brushed his lips against the skin to the side of his butler’s mouth. The kiss lingered for a few moments, and Ciel wondered when he had shut his eyes as they flicked open again.

Sebastian’s eyes burned into his as Ciel slipped back to be balanced on his full foot, the pink tongue flicking out where his mouth had touched, before disappearing into his own once more with a small hum that was reminiscent of appreciation.

The sixth time made unexpected progress. After a gruelling mission which had resulted in Ciel getting shot twice in the left leg, he had been consigned to bed rest until he recovered somewhat. Besides being furious that at nearly twenty years old, he was being once again carried around by his butler like a child, he was infuriated that he was being sentenced to the dull interior of his bedroom for the next few weeks. The brief stints where he was allowed out of the prison he called his bed, he ordered Sebastian to take him to the mansion’s personal library, returning to the sheets with a stack of books precariously balanced on his stomach as the butler carried him back to his room.

The kiss had come at the height of his pain. One injury had healed with little trouble, but the second had not been so forgiving; the bullet wound had become infected, and Ciel had silently screamed through gritted teeth as Sebastian unwrapped the binding around his thigh and cleaned the damaged area. It wasn’t the first time he had seen the demon concerned for his wellbeing (the wellbeing of the container for his next meal), but this was the first time he had seen the demon’s expression as genuine as it had been; the brow was furrowed deeply and his face held no hint of biting humour as he attempted to clean the infection away with potent disinfectant and a hot cloth. Indeed, the demon had appeared almost…fearful.

As the alcoholic liquid seeped and burned in the wound, Ciel had cursed himself as his eyes had squeezed shut and tears seeped out from under his eyepatch in a clear salty line. He pressed his lips together, sinking his teeth into the inside of his cheek to bite back the roar of tortured agony that wanted to escape, and that was when he felt familiar lips at his.

His pain drained away for a brief moment, eyes fluttering open tiredly to look into half-lidded reds. In his relieved delirium at the pain seeping away, he slipped his hand up behind Sebastian’s neck and pulled him closer, opening his mouth and delving an inexperienced tongue between the butler’s lips to deepen the kiss. Sebastian didn’t resist.

A week, and the infection was gone. His leg was stitched up and was finally healing properly, although he had slept through most of it from what he suspected was laudanum being slipped into his drinks, keeping him sedated to dull his torment.

Mey-Rin slid through the door to change the sheets, Finny in tow to assist him out of bed. Ciel’s eyebrow quirked at their presence, and the pretty maid told him that Sebastian needed to rest.

The news was a little more than unusual; usually he only needed sleep after coming into contact with a reaper’s scythe or other similarly powerful weapon. Ciel voiced the concern, and Mey-Rin’s lip twitched up into a seemingly knowing smile. ‘He’s been awake for days. Sebastian barely left your side, my lord, changing your bandages and tending to your wounds. I’ve never seen him so distraught.’

The information was jarring, and Ciel glanced to Finny. ‘Finny, can you carry me down to Sebastian’s quarters?’

The unusually strong boy gave him a little salute, and scooped him into his arms. There was less finesse than when Sebastian lifted him, but the boy didn’t struggle to take him down to the servant’s bed chamber. When they reached it, the door was ajar, but Sebastian was inside.

The butler was lying on his back on the bed, still in uniform. One hand rested over his stomach, with the other falling over the edge of the bed. Soft breaths caused the demon’s chest to rise and fall, all for show; Sebastian didn’t need to breathe. He didn’t even stir when Ciel was placed on the chair next to the bed and the gardener boy got dismissed to his daily duties, leaving the door slightly open in his wake.

Ciel found his fingers automatically moving to the demon’s face, thumb stroking over one pale cheek and revelling in the softness of the skin there. He winced slightly as he did so, but the young lord leaned down so their faces were barely a hairs width apart, then pressed his forehead to Sebastian’s. For the first time, the skin was clammy and damp, as if the demon was fighting his own battle with infection.

Sebastian’s eyes fluttered open as Ciel’s fell closed, and the young man was jolted from his brief reverie at a gloved finger stroking at his jaw. ‘Should you really be out of bed, my lord?’ Sebastian’s voice was barely above a feather-light touch on his skin, but he shuddered as the deep tone flooded through his ears. He hadn’t realise he could miss a voice so much.

Pulling back, Ciel’s cheeks flushed pale pink. ‘Mey-Rin told me you were taking rest. I’ve never know you to need sleep after staying up for days on end.’

The finger pulled away from his cheek, replaced by the entire palm, and Ciel stopped the movement only to tug away the white uniform glove. The skin underneath was warm, exactly like a human body, but for all the tasks that Sebastian excelled in, it shouldn’t have been so soft. He pressed the palm back to his jaw. ‘I’m afraid pulling the infection from your body took a toll on me, my lord.’ The words came with a tired smile.

‘Pulling the infection?’ Ciel furrowed his brow in confusion. His fingers subconsciously slipped between those of the butler and gripped tight.

Sebastian rose from the bed and swung his legs over the side, facing him head on. ‘I wove a spell over you to help you sleep through the pain. It was more effective and less dangerous than using the usual laudanum, my lord, especially in the physical state you were in.’ He pressed two bare fingers to the underside of Ciel’s jaw, and encouraged him to mimic the action. Ciel touched the space, eyes widening as he feels two small circular wounds, in the process of healing over. ‘The infection was deep. I was forced to suck the poison out of you to keep you from succumbing to it.’

His fingers drifted away from the fang marks, tangling back with Sebastian’s bare contract-marked hand and holding tightly. ‘I was that close to death?’

‘Far closer than when we formed the contract, my lord.’ The revelation stunned him. Sebastian’s duty was to protect his life, but to know the demon had sucked the infection from him and knowingly exhausted himself in the process…for a moment, he almost forgot that Sebastian was a demon.

And for a moment, he was sure Sebastian himself had forgotten. The butler leaned forward, capturing his lips in a way that could only be described as passionate, and Ciel reciprocated with equal intensity.

The seventh time was desperate, yearning, potent, vigorous. Ciel’s hands shyly slipped up and down Sebastian’s sides before resting on his hips, hooking into the belt loops and tugging a little. The urge to clamber over the demon and stake claim to his body was tempting, but the nagging pain of his injury jarred his concentration.

Sebastian broke the kiss, resting the remaining gloved hand over the young lord’s bandaged thigh. ‘My lord, now you have sufficiently seen to it that your servant is well, would you please allow me to take you back to your room? I am sure, by now, that Mey-Rin has finished changing your sheets, and I instructed her to run you a bath.’

‘No.’ Ciel’s hands found his shoulders, and before the butler could protest, the young man gave him a weak shove and threw him onto his back. ‘Lie back and rest. And I-‘ there was an even bigger shock as the injured earl lifted himself onto the mattress and swung his legs up onto it, ‘-will be here to make sure you do not move around.’ The man’s fingers stroked over his own right eyelid, ensuring the butler would know what he meant as the glow of the contract reflected back at him in Sebastian’s eyes. His lips turned upwards into a small smirk, one that he had learned and perfected from years of watching the demon. ‘That’s an order.’

Sebastian huffed out a small chuckle, his eyelids falling closed, then he opened them and turned to settle next to the handsome young man whose service he was usually in. ‘You are too kind to allow me time to rest, my lord.’

The voice wasn’t far above a murmur, and the demon raised a hand to the young man’s chin, tilting his face enough so they could kiss again.

The eighth time was simple, tongueless, met halfway and filled with unspoken words and an underlying sensation of desire they both ached to explore, but hadn’t the energy to do so. It was the longest, slowest, and most savoured kiss they’d shared to date, lips moving slowly and sensually against those of the other as arms tangled into embrace and their bodies pressed together as close as they could get through their clothes.

When Sebastian emerged from the room several hours later, carrying his master in his arms up to take him to his own bed chamber, five sets of eyes flicked over to Sebastian’s and Ciel’s.

It seemed that, one way or another, they had figured out the blossoming change in his and Sebastian’s relationship. He felt the strong arms holding him tense and tighten around him, and the fingers that were grasping at the back of the butler’s neck stroked the soft hairs under them soothingly, steeling himself against the scrutinising eyes and staring them down.

Bard merely smirked in their direction, chewed stub of his last cigarette poking out from between his lips. Finny blushed and tilted his head away with a small smile. Tanaka very slightly inclined his head. Mey-Rin’s empty hands clasped together at her grinning lips, body shaking in an effort to hold her emotion back. Snake’s face didn’t change one inch, but the serpents wound around his form quivered back and forth in apparent amusement.

The earl let his eyes fall half-lidded and allowed his own smirk overtake his features. This was his mansion. These were loyal Phantomhive servants. At the drop of a hat, they would all lay down their life for him, no holds barred and no regrets. They knew the truth anyway…he may as well embrace the freedom granted by that knowledge.

Ciel very deliberately moved his head, nuzzling his nose into one of his butler’s cheeks, satisfied as an infrequently-seen flush overtook the skin and burned below his touch. ‘Sebastian, take me up to my room then tend to your duties. Later, I will call on you and when I do, bring the other servants up with you. We will explain everything to them there.’ He spoke against the demon’s cheek, then he initiated their ninth kiss onto the impossibly soft flesh; the first kiss in the presence of someone other than just each other, and one that sent an oddly dirty thrill through him.

A squeak left the bespectacled maid’s mouth, and her hand shot to her nose, clenching down to stem the trickle of blood that had begun to flow. Without hesitation, Tanaka pressed a clean folded handkerchief into her free palm, and bowed low in respect. ‘We await your orders, Master.’

He wasn’t expecting the tenth. Sebastian’s hold relaxed around him, and before he could acknowledge the change fully, the demon had turned his own head and dipped to connect their lips in full view of the others, tongue slipping between his lips and tracing senseless patterns against his, claiming him before the five other servants, before pulling away from him to carry him off to his room.

Although not seen in the darkened corridor, Mey-Rin’s nose bled even more as she heard the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and if she wasn’t mistaken, fifteenth, kisses being shared as butler and master left their sight.

**Author's Note:**

> I thought I was losing my fluff mojo to angstiness. I really, really hope I haven't lost it!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
